Aerospace Tech Startups Get a Chance to Pitch at JPL

Fifteen startup companies in the aerospace
sector descended on NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California,
on March 15 to pitch their ideas to a packed von Karman auditorium filled with
JPL technologists, corporate and government agency leaders, and potential
investors.

The
event, co-hosted by JPL and Starburst Accelerator, gave each presenter about 15
minutes to pitch their products and business plans in the hopes of bending the
ears of investors, and raising awareness of the emergent business sector in the
process.

For
JPL, the occasion was a chance for technology leaders and program offices
across the Lab to get an up-close look at some of the innovative concepts
coming from aerospace startups.

Highlights
from the day's pitches included a satellite-based electric propulsion system
both lighter and more efficient than current market options; an underwater
drone surveillance network nicknamed the "Swiss Army Knife of the sea;"
and a space-based gas station where future missions could fuel up and unload.

Six
judges on the panel gave feedback and asked questions while the scoring results
from the audience were collected by Starburst through a mobile app for use in
their accelerator and sponsorship programs. The event was focused on awareness,
networking and community-building, according to Francois Chopard, chief
executive of Starburst.

"There
are more and more startups entering the space industry," Chopard said.
"For large corporations, there is a new way to innovate: to work and
collaborate with outside companies and outside innovation."

Tom
Cwik, program manager of JPL's Office of Space Technology, said JPL recognizes
that the commercial space sector is expanding, due in large part to the
innovations coming out of venture-backed startups driving new ideas. "JPL
is going to be a part of that," Cwik said during the Starburst event.
"We want to increase the interactions with this community, find the
overlap in technology, and collaborate."

JPL's
manager for technology partnerships, Richard French, said top-tier firms and
forward-leaning government agencies are both actively engaged with new tools
for capturing commercially driven innovation and technologies.

"Commercial
space is expanding and is gaining momentum, in part due to a major increase in
venture-backed startup companies," French said. "JPL is expecting to
increase interactions with the emerging commercial space sector and will be
expanding our exploration of the overlap between JPL's future mission needs and
commercial opportunities."

The recent
event, French said, is the beginning of that expansion, and he expects more
events and programs to be on JPL's radar in the future.